A place for people interested in introspection, self awareness, mindfulness, meditation and training the mind to abide in a state that is free from the constant flow of meaningless chatter, mind theatrics, and discursive thought.

When we allow our minds to wander off in thought, we become disconnected from the present moment and from the reality that exists around us. We enter a sort of pseudo-reality dream-like world within the mind, as we reflect upon past events, or try to imagine our future. The simple fact is that most of our mental activity distracts us from reality and since it is not reality, can be classified as fantasy, or daydreams.

Daydreams and fantasies imprint upon our memory in the same way as any external event. Some will produce stronger imprints than others. Some will be forgotten, Others will feed and shape our Ego. Just as it is with events in reality, those that stir or invoke emotions leave the strongest imprints on our memory.

Because we live in a society that practically worships big Egos, we are never really taught the importance of inner reflection and self awareness. Without self awareness, the Ego is free to operate without any checks and balances and this free reign of our unobserved Ego often leads to clashes with other Egos.

In our fantasy versions of reality, where we are script writer, director, and star of the play, we have complete control and dominion over everything, and usually create versions of realities that inflate and reinforce our Ego. Events that occur in physical reality seldom bend completely to our wishes, and when our Ego does not experience reality the way it thinks things should be, we suffer.

When we anticipate future events, the mind likes to play out various scenarios searching for what seems to be most favourable to our own desires and will. In this fantastic reality, we can always say just the right thing to fit the circumstances, and of course, we can always achieve the results we want. We exist in a universe of infinite possibilities, and physical reality does not bend so gracefully to our will or our wishes as we would like. No matter how many scenarios we run through in our minds, we can not possibly imagine every outcome in a sea of infinite possibilities.

When we encounter an anticipated situation in physical reality, the Ego (which has unrealistic expectations of control, since it has become accustomed to having control of it's inner fantastical reality), will sub-consciously try to manipulate the situation into playing out as close as possible to our preferred fantastical reality. Since other people's Egos are doing the same thing, the likelihood of our Ego clashing with other Egos increases. Our responses, actions, reactions and interactions with physical reality are influenced by a combination of our life conditioning (memories of similar prior experiences), our views of who or what we believe we are or should be (Ego), and unconscious programming from our fantastic reality. We are indeed creating our own kharma.

The way to break free of this cycle of Kharma is to learn to observe the inner workings of the mind by paying attention to what is going on inside at all times. Attention is the mind's learning mode. As every grade school teachers says, "Pay attention or you will not learn anything". As Carl Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Driven by fear of the unknown, fear of making a mistake, fear of not being in control, fear of saying or doing the 'wrong' thing, or any of many different fears, the Ego will most assuredly defend itself with flawed logic to justify all of its daydreaming as being necessary to be prepared for whatever may arise. Ego wants to say or do just the right thing at just the right time. After all, this is precisely what the Ego can do in fantastic reality. We convince ourselves that with enough preparation we can somehow control physical reality like we do with fantastical reality. More suffering.

So where is the flaw in this reasoning? In fantasy, thoughts seem to flow effortlessly into words during mental conversations where we can always say or do just the right thing. If the circumstances of physical reality played out exactly the same way in physical reality as they do in fantastic reality, this might actually be useful. However, in physical reality, there are far too many other variables for our limited minds to be able to consider or compensate for. Driven by a fear of saying or doing something less than ideal to our Egoic expectations, we become reluctant to just allow that same easy natural flow of thoughts to manifest outside of Ego's control. The simple truth is that if we can just let go of our preconceived ideas and conditioning, and our need to be in control, opting instead to trust in pure present moment awareness, then our thoughts, speech, actions and re-actions can arise from a place of purity and truth. Some aspects of conditioning (inherited kharma) may still be there, and may not be what the Ego desires, but our actions, re-actions, and interactions with reality will certainly be much more appropriate, genuine and authentic when we let go of our need to control reality and trust in the natural flow of life instead.

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Understanding how and why the mind creates its seemingly unending flow of thoughts, words, pictures, and mind theatrics is the first step in quieting the mind and an essential step on the path to enlightenment. When the mind is able to comprehend that it is its own source of suffering, it can be trained to become a willing participant in bringing about a peaceful contented mind and put and end to self created suffering.

About The Author

Whenever anything is pulled in a downward direction against its will with an ever increasing force, only 1 of 2 possible outcomes can occur. It either succumbs to the downward pull, or the force that is pulling snaps and the object is catapulted the other way. This is perhaps the simplest way to sum up the events of my life.
After many years of anger, bitterness, depression and resentment at the way I had perceived my life, something snapped and my consciousness shot up the other way. After several days I settled back into a more neutral place, one that was still much better than where I had come from.
This was the beginning of a spiritual and inquisitive journey not only to find my way back to where I spent those few days, but also to try and understand what had happened to me.
My intention was to figure out how it all worked in a way that could hopefully also benefit others.
With each passing day I spend ever increasing amounts of time in a silent mind, each day closer to the state I spent those few days in.
I now know that reaching that state is not the end of the journey, for there is an infinite amount of space in which the soul can grow.

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